Aston Villa decided to sack Steven Gerrard one week ago after the club’s poor Premier League results and lack of identity on the pitch.
Although they started to be a promising team when the former Liverpool player arrived, they have been playing game by game, forgetting the potential shape and intensity that showed in their first matches under Gerrard tactics.
This was very exciting for many Villa fans who truly believed that with the right transfer window, things were absolutely going to get better.
Bringing six new players and signing Phillipe Coutinho and Robin Olsen on long-term contracts would be big moves. However, when you see the names and the positions they look for, some things have clicked and some haven’t.
31-year-old Diego Carlos suffered a season-long injury, and Leander Dendoncker, Jan Bednarek, or Ludwig Augustinsson don’t look like top signings besides 22-year-old special talent Boubacar Kamara.
Villa lacked squad depth, mostly between all the team’s defensive lines.
However, signing Diego Carlos was kind of a coup, but they needed more.
Steven Gerrard didn’t get the best form of this team since the start of the 2022/23 campaign.
Currently, they sit in the 15th position of the league table, having lost six matches, including a 3-0 thrashing at Fulham, a 3-1 against Crystal Palace, and a 2-0 loss against Bournemouth on the opening day.
Villa won and drew the other 3. They scored 11 goals, ranking fourth among the fewest goals scored in the season, and conceded 16 goals as well.
Unai Emery first rejected Newcastle back in November when he decided to stick with Villarreal for at least one more year, with clear goals of what they could achieve in the UEFA Champions League.
After one of the biggest fairy tales in the 20/21 Europa League, they invested in their squad, and the majority of the vital players stayed with the club and were ready for the best club competition in the world.
Emery once again showed the kind of European monster he is with his clubs; nevertheless, it’s no secret that he has an image to clean at the English Premier League.
The Premier League is still a challenge for the former Arsenal coach who didn’t tick the right boxes as he did in other teams like Sevilla or his recent Villarreal, which somehow finished 7th in the league under Emery, but lifted the Europa League and were 45 minutes away from a Champions League final, similar to what they lived in 2006 against Arsenal, being defeated in the penalty-shootout after Argentinian legend Riquelme miss the decisive shoot.
This tactical analysis piece will be a short team scout report of Unai Emery and his tactics at Villarreal.
It will also analyse what he can expect inside the Aston Villa squad and which positions he should invest in in the next transfer window.
Unai Emery profile
Emery has been constantly working inside a philosophy of calm and patient possession in the first stages of the build-up, trying to attract the first line of pressure.
He has made several movements from his strikers that normally set up in doubles and aggressive runs to break the lines from one of his central midfielders.
Something to admire about the Spaniard is the change of mentality he has given to his teams, especially the Spanish ones.
His entire squad commits to playing the way he wants, and sometimes have to change to a low block to adapt to high-risk situations, doing it without asking.
However, Emery has also shown inside his game model the importance of ball-playing centre-backs who can play long from the back or connect between the lines with far players.
Wingers and full-backs have also been key in Emery’s system.
If we look back at his Villarreal, we would find players like Yeremy Pino or Giovanni Lo Celso with very different profiles but assigned roles that usually take the half-spaces to appear, leaving the outside for explosive full-backs such as Pervis Estupiñán or Alberto Moreno if we go backwards at his Sevilla spell.
The Pizza Chart below shows how Villarreal has been doing at the start of the 2022/23 season.
Although they are sitting 7th in the league table, this viz still shows us a great sign of how Emery likes his teams to play: mid-block, low high-pressing style, low percentage of crosses, looking to create chances from key and through passes, and carrying the ball to the final third.
As a team that sets up in the middle third, looking to close spaces, they have been struggling in defence, registering too many high-goal-scoring chances.
Gerónimo Rulli lately has been the hero with his saves.
As we can see, Villarreal are commonly placed in the final third and even in the opposition’s penalty box; however, they haven’t been turning ball dominance into high-goal-scoring opportunities.
This indicates a lack of ideas in attack to break defensive blocks.
Normally, Emery likes to place his team on the pitch inside a very mobile and role-playing system 4-4-2 that has from a ball-playing centre-back to an explosive centre-forward exploiting the channels.
Breaking it down from the back four, Villarreal showed the different types of players in each position and the roles he assigned for each one.
Gerónimo Rulli showed great ability to pass the ball from the back and save his team when they needed it, so Emery looks to have a very complete player in the goal.
Starting with the right-back, Juan Foyth, the South American was the ace up his sleeve.
He could play centre-back in a back-three, as a wing-back and normally as a full-back in a back-four.
Foyth tends to stay behind to form a back-three and provide protection and security to his defensive line, as many players, including midfielders, go up to attack.
The centrebacks shared some attributes: good passing skills.
One was more defensively correct than the other, and one was more responsible for breaking the lines with his good ball control: Pau Torres.
On the left, they have ‘the bullet’ Pervis Estupiñán, who, with his pace and dribbling technique, brings the attacking threat in the middle and final third.
The midfield was the key for Emery, as some of them were very versatile, able to adapt to different zones of the pitch and roles, offering protection, ball progression, or retention of the ball.
Giovanni Lo Celso was another ace, as he would play second-striker, inverted winger, ‘8’ in a 4-3-3 and more.
He normally started as a right-winger, joining the midfield.
The double pivot was a very synergic and coordinated one, with the likes of Etienne Capoue and Dani Parejo, who provided excellent height exchanges and both had very decent under-pressure management. One was more aggressive, running and breaking lines like Capoue, while Parejo was a more sensitive touch player looking to switch the play.
Here, we see an example of how Giovanni Lo Celso supports his team in possession. He goes out from wide to the middle, leaving all the wing to his full-back, who can make several runs in behind.
The Argentinian makes a midfield three, joining Parejo and Capoue.
However, he’s a very mobile and functional player who likes to move throughout the pitch, providing first-time passes and using dribbling skills to escape from small spaces. He then starts rapid attacks, switching the play or making through passes.
Another massive development in Villarreal is how Dani Parejo helps his team bait and beat the high press.
We are watching the Europa League semi-finals, where Arsenal deploys aggressive and fearless pressing, looking to block the passing circuits with the Spanish midfielders.
Parejo shows great ability not only with his technique, switching play, or finding far players with long balls but also with his ability to escape from the press with tools like the direct pass to the wing in the half-turn.
The Spaniard is a deep-lying playmaker, so Emery likes it very much that his pivot gets involved in the build-up and can think of playing forward, knocking down the walls the team likes to set defensively.
This image decomposes the Villarreal shape inside a match.
Against Cádiz, their problems scoring goals and not being that dangerous were evident; however, this helps us show how Emery liked his team to shape in the first part of the build-up.
Utilization of the goalkeeper forming a back-three with wide centre-backs, both full-backs high on the pitch looking to appear free and carry the ball, Parejo and Capoue in the double pivot, the second one pulled more to the right-hand-side where he joined his centre-backs, inverted wingers and one of the centre-forwards dropping off to drag defenders and the other one looking to use that space are all mechanisms of an Emery team.
The striker partnership and left winger were the team’s peaks, with players like Jeremy Pino, Arnaut Danjuma, and Gerard Moreno who could play every position and role in the forward line that Emery would ask.
Young Pino showed excellent 1v1 dribbling skills and inside play with quick-armed shots looking for the far corner. He was also accompanied by excellent movements from Moreno, who has a magnificent sense of what zones he has to drop off. Former Bournemouth player Danjuma read well to attack those free spaces.
We can see how Gérard Moreno likes to contribute in possession with his off-the-ball movements, controls, and first-time passes. He drops to the double pivot looking to receive an inside pass from the right back.
One of the centre-forwards from Emery’s team has to be this mobile and intelligent to retain possession at this zones.
In the attacking third, Villarreal liked very much the surprising moves from behind their midfielders.
Etienne Capoue was the first to reach the penalty box, where, thanks to his height and strong build, he could compete with tough players inside.
Against Liverpool, they demonstrate how chameleonic and multi-faceted they could be, as an attacking threat can also come from crosses.
This time, they attacked the back-post because Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson lacked awareness in this zone.
Villarreal also likes to get many players in the penalty area, including two strikers and both wingers.
As we can see below, Capoue has already made the run for a brilliant cross delivered by his full-back, which he’ll head sideways to Boulaye Dia, who scored the 1-0.
This picture can also show us the right-back role, which Juan Foyth understands perfectly and executes greatly. In the attacking phase, he constantly exchanges channels from the wide to the inside, makes runs with the ball, looks to break the lines with his passes, and, at the same time, provides security to the high block.
Defensively, Villarreal wasn’t the most regular team, as they received many goals in the 20/21 season.
They conceded the most among the top seven of the league and the third most in the following season.
However, they were slightly better.
Emery wanted his team to play in a rigid mid-block that sometimes had issues with the separations between the midfield and defence line, that teams exploited with players that could make through-passes to others who could receive and turn there.
Aston Villa squad and what to expect
With the 7th largest squad in the league, Aston Villa could be very excited about having one of the best coaches in the world.
Still, he could also be nervous about how he can make a comeback into a competition that has become very tough for him to manage.
Even though his two-and-a-half-year spell at Villarreal has been very good for his career, things will surely change for him in the Premier League.
Villa started the campaign as a different team in the intense and aggressive pressing they had before, lacking chance-creation, ball dominance, and conceding high-goal-scoring opportunities, which was a very bad sight for the team.
Thinking of a 4-4-2, the former Valencia head coach could have some issues with Emiliano Martínez’s footwork.
He hasn’t been the best under pressure, as he usually tries to hit it long to skip steps in possession.
In other words, he has shown why he’s capable of being a great goalkeeper with his shot-stopping capacity, not only in games but also against penalties.
It should be interesting to see what Emery would do with the Argentinian.
Moving on to the back four, he would have to start his project without counting Diego Carlos, as he’s already been out for up to nine months, and two have already been consumed.
In the figure below, we can see the methods Emery liked to use against high-pressing teams.
Gerónimo Rulli frequently looked to send the ball long or chip it to the free full-back. This could be a distribution range that Martínez could fit.
Ezri Konsa, Tyrone Mings and Jan Bednarek are the best options at the centre of the defence, and Villa should surely be looking at the January transfer window.
Three of them possess good passing skills, but their defensive aptitudes have been declining for a long time.
Emery showed at Villarreal that he wants a mix of modern and traditional players in this line. Again, several things should change soon at Villa Park.
Lucas Digne and Matty Cash, who both offer great attacking skills and build-up intelligence to play out from the back, cover the full-backs well.
The midfield, the most important area of Emery’s team, is well-covered but also struggling to hit the form they showed in the past.
Here, we can see names like John McGinn or Douglas Luiz, who haven’t been the same.
New signings Leander Dendoncker and Boubacar Kamara were directly affected by the team’s context, and the team keeps waiting for Morgan Sanson’s talent not to be thrown away by injuries.
This is where Jacob Ramsey, probably Villa’s brightest talent, enters the chat and makes himself a key player to develop at Unai’s next team.
His excellent work rate, off-the-ball movements from now on, and confidence in small spaces should already be on the Spaniard shortlist.
He could easily play alongside Boubacar Kamara or Leander Dendoncker, who surely would start at the defensive-midfielder role, working step by step those coordinated exchanges Capoue and Parejo showed brilliantly last season.
However, the former Marseille player can also play as a centre-back, so he could be very good in that position.
Moving onto the wings, Emiliano Buendía is the perfect example of similarity when talking about Lo Celso.
The Argentinian player has that attacking midfielder soul that helps in the first passes and then progresses thanks to his dribbling, bravery in breaking lines, and capacity to play inverted.
Phillipe Coutinho could also perform that role, changing roles to the other side of the pitch.
On the other wing, Ollie Watkins or Leon Bailey could be aggressive wingers who run to the box like Pino.
However, they lack depth in this zone, so they might start considering the type of player Emery would love to see here.
Finally, Danny Ings and Ollie Watkins have already mentioned that they can offer what Danjuma and Moreno did.
They were Champions League-level so that the comparisons can be very poor.
Despite that, Ings possesses those off-the-ball movements to drop off and take the ball very low on the pitch, where Watkins and his energetic playing style can take advantage of spaces created behind Danny.
Conclusion
Aston Villa doesn’t have all the perfect elements to start automatically playing Emery’s idea.
However, this is a very rough idea to consider in a season that has already started, with a team fighting for relegation in the 2019/20 season.
With the sale of Jack Grealish, Villa was left on a drift.
They paid a lot of money for many players who have not yet reached their full potential, such as Ings or Buendía.
They need to regain an identity and a football model that allows them to play good football and achieve results.
Emery looks like the right man for this job.
He likes this kind of reconstruction, and his experience would demand it.
On top of this, he would need time, patience and confidence from the fans and club board.
